0220

VARIATIONS IN NEUTRAL OLIGOSACCHARIDES AND LACTOSE IN TERM MILK AND PRETERM MILK DURING THE FIRST MONTH OF LACTATION

Weng M-Q¹, Song J-F², Xia Q-C², Wu S-M¹

¹ Shanghai XinHua Hospital, Shanghai Institute for Pediatric Research, Shanghai Second Medical University, Shanghai, China

² Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China

Objective: In order to know the content of lactose and neutral oligosaccharides in human milk during the first month of lactation in term milk and preterm milk.

Methods: Capillary electrophoresis (CE) was used to analyze the content of lactose and neutral oligosaccharides in human milk.

Results: The amount of lactose (approximately 47 g/L on day 3) was close to the lower limit of what was reported. In the Shanghai area 2’-Fucosyllactose (2’-FL) was the most abundant neutral oligosaccharide followed by Lacto-N-fucopentaose-Ⅰ(LNFP-Ⅰ), the content in colostrum was 4.8 g/L and 2.38 g/L respectively. Difference between term milk and preterm milk in the quantities of lactose and thirteen oligosaccharides were statistically insignificant, although the mean value of most oligosaccharides in preterm milk was a little higher than those in term milk. The overall concentration of oligosaccharides decreased over the course of lactation, and the trend of decreasing was sharper in term milk than preterm milk.

Conclusion: Oligosaccharides from human milk may play an important role in protecting infants from bacterial attack. We believe that breast-feeding appear to be the most effective and economic method to decrease gastrointestinal infections in infants.